Spirit of Christmas Present(s)
by Mirrankei
Summary: A present for a friend of mine I wrote a few years ago. She asked for Josh/Neku and/or is is primarily the former with brief references to the latter. - "I'm not Christian," Neku pointed out. "Besides that, Christmas is only for little kids and couples." With that, he shoved his headphones over his ears and clicked on his MP3 player.


"Package for you, Phones."

Neku stopped in the middle of opening the door to Cat Cafe and seriously thought about turning around to walk right out of it. After a moment of consideration, he tugged the scarf from around his mouth and came in.

"I come here for a coffee, I get a package," he said with a scowl. "What the hell kind of cafe gets mail for its customers."

"Dunno. This one."

Hanekoma slid a fresh, steaming cup of mocha down the bar to Neku's preferred seat. Neku sat without looking, occupied in tugging his gloves off, one finger at a time. That accomplished, he reached out to take a sip, and stopped. He plucked something out of the mug.

"The hell is this?"

"Hm? Oh, it's a candy cane."

"What's it doing in my coffee?" Neku asked, holding it between two fingers like something particularly disgusting.

"Being festive."

"I don't want mint in my coffee."

"Good thing you took it out, then."

Neku glared for a moment longer. Hanekoma grinned placidly back. Neku sighed and dropped the candy cane on the bar.

"You know, you're being awfully unaccommodating to your only customer."

"You're not my only customer! Though I guess I haven't seen your friends around lately."

Neku didn't take the bait. If Hanekoma was expecting Beat or Shiki to come, he'd've had drinks ready for them too. And he know from the lack of terrified teenagers hurrying through clothing stores that it wasn't a Game week. He took a drink of coffee.

"No Christmas plans then, Phones?"

There was cinnamon in the coffee. Neku hated it when Mr. H changed the recipe without warning him.

"Beat and Rhyme are with their family. Shiki's out with Eri, obviously." He glared over the edge of his cup.

Hanekoma laughed at his expression. There was a little mocha-milk-mustache over his upper lip. "Aw, cheer up, Scrooge."

"'Sukruji?"

"You know, Scrooge! Christmas Carol! Bah humbug and all that. Hates Christmas." Hanekoma shook his head at Neku's blank look. "You really need to catch up on the classics. This is just getting sad."

"I'm not Christian," Neku pointed out. "Besides that, Christmas is only for little kids and couples." With that, he shoved his headphones over his ears, clicked on his mp3 player, and fully ignored anything Mr. H might have to say.

He had about seven seconds to enjoy his music before it abruptly changed to Jingle Bells. An arm slung itself around his shoulder, and soon after there was someone sitting halfway in his lap.

"In the grand scheme of things, you're both, dear." Josh tugged the headphones off Neku's ear and leaned into it.

Neku took another drink of coffee. "In the grand scheme of things, I'm a couple?"

Joshua giggled and reached around to help himself to the abandoned candy cane. "Well, half of one. Aren't you going to open your present?"

Neku eyed the plain brown package that had been sitting beside his place at the bar since he entered. "You didn't even wrap it."

"Oh, _now_ he wants Christmas spirit." Josh waved his hand carelessly, and a colorful, tribal design appeared on the surface of the box as though it had always been there. "Good thing you have me around. Spirit of Christmas Present(s), as it were."

Josh giggled at his own joke while Neku reluctantly pulled the package over. He opened it with trepidation, unable to get over the niggling worry that it might be the gun that had killed him once upon a time. The box was certainly heavy enough, and about the right size, but when he opened it he was greeted by the sight of gold tissue paper. He dug through that, cautiously groping around the box and finding nothing but tissue and cardboard, until his hand finally clasped around something soft.

He pulled it out, surprised to find none of the weight the box had carried. It was light enough to hold between two fingers and barely feel its presence. Despite the soft feeling on his hand, the edges were razor sharp, and even the dim white glow around it seemed to echo in his mind like musical notes.

"It's... a feather."

"Mhmm," Josh said, pulling it from Neku's fingers. He weaved it deftly into Neku's bangs so that it brushed against his face. "One of mine, actually. Not the most peasant of things to detach, if you must know."

Neku gasped as his head filled with... something. Light and music, and a higher plane of existence as he looked down on all the colors and sounds and threads of the city, every soul and fragment and Noise, pulsing together in his head from just a brief flash of contact against his temple.

A fleeting thought appeared and he was instantly there, feeling joy spread through his fingertips as Shiki so carefully reached out to cup Eri's cheek as they kissed, the shock of nervousness and pleasure and love shared with the city and vibrating out into the universe, and cold against the back of his neck as Rhyme giggled almost maniacally and slug another snowball at Beat's head, skin prickling with cold through the heat of exertion as he dove for cover and only succeeded in getting more buried in snow, sending her laughter ringing like bells through the music of the city and into the feather and Neku's head.

"It's beautiful," he said, pulling it away.

Josh was smirking in that undefinably irritating way. "I know," he said casually. "I made it." He wasn't referring to the feather.

He reached out to Neku, pinching his chin with three fingers and pulling him closer. "It's just like you said," he went on, wiping a tear away from the loopy, joyous grin on Neku's face. "Christmas is only for children..."

The kiss was warm and tasted vaguely of mint. It was completely unlike the feather, with no sign of music but the tinny Christmas songs still filtering through Neku's abandoned headphones, everything physical and earthy and real, until Joshua's physical body disappeared and left Neku sitting on his chair at the cafe bar, eyes closed but head tilted upward, with a feather tangled in his hair.

 _...and couples_ , Josh finished in his mind. _I'll see you later. I've still got half a city to play Santa Claus to._

Neku opened his eyes. He sighed, rolled them, and pulled the feather from his hair. He lay it neatly on the counter beside his coffee.

"Merry Christmas," he said to the air.

On a whim, he looked over at the box still sitting beside him. He had felt every corner of it before pulling out the feather, but where it was once empty was now a book, a pin, and a note.

The pin bore the picture of a sparsely decorated Christmas tree. Neku wondered what it did.

The book was next. The cover had a picture of an old man in bed, and another man covered in chains, floating over the bed. Neku couldn't read the title. It was in English.

 _It's better in the original language,_ the note explained. _Come, know me better, man! And bring a dictionary. Love, the Spirit of Christmas Present(s)._

Neku sighed once again, but he was smiling. He placed the feather carefully inside the book so only the very tip was poking out. He set them aside and drank deep from his mysteriously refilled cup of coffee. It tasted lightly of cinnamon and mint. The taste was starting to grow on him.


End file.
